Mirror

Shadow Soldier

My hand froze. The voice was like something from nightmares: rough and dripping with twisted mirth. I wanted to tell it to stay outside. I would do as it said. I wanted to say that I would kill it if it came near my children, but it didn't matter what I wanted because my voice wouldn't come out. Somehow, I must have figured if I remained silent maybe it would just go away. Maybe if I didn't acknowledge the voice, it would cease to really exist.

That was foolish.

I couldn't see anything, but I could feel it drawing closer. I heard May turn over in her sleep and a shot of adrenaline started the gears turning in my head again. I waited until I heard the sound of nails scraping against the wooden door. Filling my lungs with dusty air, I threw my whole weight, shoulder first, against the door. A lack of resistance surprised me and I fell into a heap in the door frame, not daring to move. Tery tumbled outside, just out of my reach.

I waited and listened.

Had I imagined the whole thing? Was I just getting paranoid? I threw a glance behind me. I couldn't see Danny and May, but I knew they were still sleeping soundly or Danny would have said something.
I pushed myself off my stomach and crawled to pick up Tery. A black boot blocked my outstretched fingers as I reached for my only means of defense. Reluctantly, I looked up. The light from the city torches and window candles was enough to see a boy wearing a hooded cloak and dark flowing pants towering over me. The cloak was thrown over his shoulders, revealing a his bare chest and sleek muscles. This was not a boy I could fight.

I shuffled backwards on my hands until I hit the cold outside wall of the little hay house where May and Danny were still sleeping. Hopefully. The shadow advanced and escape in any direction seemed improbable. I shielded my face with my arms as he reached out with an enormous, clawed hand. For an instant he reminded me of the very first shadow I encountered on the day I first learned about Mirror, the day Danny almost died. For the life of me I couldn't remember how I had managed to get out of that one alive.

It all came back to me in a quick flash of disappointment. Camy had woken me up from that nightmare. I wasn't the one who saved Danny. It was probably someone else. Except, everyone was dead, already stabbed multiple times. The only other living human was the shadow-infected man with the knife.

And Danny.

I felt the shadows gigantic hand close around my head, pinning my arms to my face. I bit my forearm so I wouldn't scream, but I let go when I finally found the words I was looking for.

The shadow lifted me from the ground until my feet were dangling. "I know-" I started to say, but quickly ran out of enough breath to finish the sentence. The shadow's fingers tensed and I felt his sharp nails pierce the skin on the back my head and neck. My breath came in short gasps. "I know you won't kill me," I managed to blurt out in one quick breath.

In response, I felt the pressure on my head increase almost to the point of cracking my skull. I bit my arm again and whimpered pathetically as hot tears stung my eyes. "Danny... won't-" I let out a quiet sob and gathered the courage to keep going- "let you," I finished quickly. The pressure on my skull only increased once more and I figured I must have been wrong, but I was all out of other ideas and the thought of dying at the hand, quite literally, of a random shadow could really make one desperate. "Daniel! He'll be angry. I know you can't kill me while he's here, so you don't scare me. You can't even hurt me." Though those last parts had already proven false.